Technology | The Guardian

The worlds of science and technology collide as we ask how new tech is being used on localised levels to create global changeIt’s the question on everyone’s lips: what are we doing about climate change? Lucky for us, there are innovations in tech and science taking place that may be applied to global issues like climate change.Joining Nathalie Nahai to discuss how new technology – and new ways of approaching the data behind tech – are shaping our future are the project director for Project Ukko, Drew Hemment; senior researcher at Nesta Lydia Nicholas; and particle phycisist Ben Still. Continue reading...

Süddeutsche Zeitung’s lawsuit is thrown out by court in latest blow to online newspapers hoping to halt spread of adblocking

Automated vehicles have long been considered the province for big companies, but now even a few college dropouts can get one on the roadConsider this scene at a California state college campus:A futuristic-looking golf cart rolls towards a student walking with her books. When it gets near, it stops on its own, then Brandon Moak leans out and says, “Would you like a ride in a self-driving vehicle?” Continue reading...

USB-C cables that do not comply with the required specifications, which have been known to fry computers, smartphones and tablets, are now bannedAmazon has banned USB-C charging cables that do not comply with specifications, awhich are considered dangerous as they can damage devices they are used with and potentially cause safety risks.The USB-C specification, which includes a reversible connector that can plug in either way up, was designed as the do-it-all cable capable of charging computers as well as smartphones, tablets and other low-power gadgets.

Short-lived return saw Tay tweet about smoking drugs in front of the police before suffering a meltdown and being taken offlineMicrosoft’s attempt to converse with millennials using an artificial intelligence bot plugged into Twitter made a short-lived return on Wednesday, before bowing out again in some sort of meltdown.

Users blame Apple and iOS 9.3 after Booking.com app broke fundamental link system within the iPhone and iPad, leaving them angrily tapping dead URLsA bug that causes links and web addresses not to work and iPhones to crash continues to affect thousands of Apple smartphone and tablet users.

Main programmer on AlphaGo published a paper on teaching a computer to play the casino favouriteWhat next for Google’s DeepMind, now that the company has mastered the ancient board game of Go, beating the Korean champion Lee Se-Dol 4–1 this month?A paper from two UCL researchers suggests one future project: playing poker. And unlike Go, victory in that field could probably fund itself – at least until humans stopped playing against the robot. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Wednesday. Continue reading...

A temporary truce has emerged in the raging battle between Apple and the FBI, but technology fragility and corporate power remain unaddressedIt has been a spectacular six-week showdown – the world’s most valuable brand, Apple, pitted against the powerful American agents of the FBI. Two titans of spin, locked in a fast-moving battle over a dead terrorist’s smartphone. Now, as dramatically as it exploded, the FBI’s legal demand that Apple help it crack the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino killers has evaporated – the agents hacked their way in anyway, assisted by a mysterious third party.There was always more to the Apple v FBI case than met the eye – and it is true for this latest twist too. The biggest issue is that both sides stand to gain a lot more from this battle than any of us. With little relation to reality, and backed by a worryingly partisan chorus, the notoriously closed Apple is emerging as a champion of users’ rights. Equally worryingly, a government agency is claiming the power to keep to itself a tool that can potentially break security features on millions of phones, while earmarking a demand for further judicial or legislative intervention in the future. Whichever way you look, this feud is far from a road to freedom in the digital environment. Continue reading...

Developer Blizzard agrees scene in which female provocatively directs rear towards camera is inconsistent with her characterThe game developer Blizzard has altered a sequence in the forthcoming shooter Overwatch after fans complained that it needlessly sexualised a female character.In the contentious moment, a character named Tracer adopts a victory pose in which her rear is directed provocatively toward the camera. One player argued on the game’s official forum that the pose is inconsistent with her character, as established in the game’s publicity and narrative. Continue reading...

$9.99-a-month premium tier launching first in the US, taking on Spotify and Apple Music with 125m-track catalogueThe music and audio streaming firm SoundCloud is launching its long-planned subscription service, but for now the $9.99-a-month service will only be available in the US.The new feature, SoundCloud Go, is being launched on Tuesday, and the company hopes a mammoth catalogue of more than 125m tracks – quadruple those of its rivals Spotify and Apple Music – will persuade a chunk of its 175 million subscribers who listen for free to start paying. Continue reading...

After hundreds complain of bugs and crashes, one gets fixed by Apple and the other is isolated to Booking.com’s appHundreds of iPhone and iPad users have been hit by multiple bugs locking their devices or causing them to crash since the release of Apple’s latest operating software, iOS 9.3.

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Tuesday! Continue reading...

Changes to Instagram’s algorithm will present photos out of chronological order. But users should not rush to change their preferences just yetForthcoming changes to Instagram’s algorithm, which will present photos out of chronological order, have thrown the photo-sharing app into chaos, with users asking their followers to “turn on notifications” so their updates aren’t lost to the new regime.Don’t do it. For your sake. Not yet, anyway. Continue reading...

AI such as Microsoft’s Tay show why we need more women in tech – and how the male-dominated industry is failing to consider their real-life counterpartsBy now you’ve likely heard the story of Tay, Microsoft’s social AI experiment that went from “friendly millennial girl” to genocidal misogynist in less than a day. While Tay promised to learn from her interactions with people online, Microsoft apparently hasn’t learned anything from the countless headlines about how Twitter users like to talk to visible women – everything from gleefully anarchic trolling to threats and abuse – otherwise it would have seen this coming.At first, Tay’s story seems like a fun one for anyone who’s interested in cautionary sci-fi. What does it mean for the future of artificial intelligence if a bot can embody the worst aspects of digital culture after just 16 hours online? If any AI is given the vastness of human creation to study at lightning speed, will it inevitably turn evil? Will the future be a content creation battle for their souls? Continue reading...

The release of the headsets is a major milestone for virtual reality and a big day for the tech world, but it could be a while before they really take offOculus today has shipped its first consumer virtual reality headsets, setting a major milestone for the industry.The groundbreaking headsets, retailing for $599 and now backordered until at least July, allow high-quality, super immersive virtual reality viewing in a small package – a remarkable innovation those in the space have been holding out hope for for years. Continue reading...

Following the attack in Pakistan, Facebook users as far away as Hawaii, New York and the UK received notification from the site’s disaster response featureFacebook has apologised for pushing its safety check feature to users worldwide in the wake of the suicide bombing in Pakistan.After the deadly attack in Lahore on Sunday, in which at least 69 people were killed and hundreds injured, Facebook users nowhere near the Pakistani city were mistakenly asked if they were safe. Continue reading...

The FBI’s attempt to force Apple to unlock a phone is only the latest example of the state challenging fundamental freedomsSo the FBI has backed off – at least for the time being – in its bid to force Apple to write a crippled version of the iPhone operating system in order to enable the bureau to unlock the phone used by a terrorist. Last Tuesday government lawyers asked a judge to postpone the scheduled hearing because FBI investigators believe they may have found a way to hack the iPhone’s security without forcing Apple to help. The judge readily agreed, thereby putting on the back burner an epic confrontation between an irresistible force and an immovable object. If you wanted a case study that illustrates the challenges posed by digital technology for the modern state, then this battle between the FBI and Apple is it.The story began on 2 December with an attack by two terrorists that left 14 people dead and 22 seriously injured at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. Four hours after the shooting, the two killers (a married couple) were shot dead by the police. The man – Syed Rizwan Farook – had an iPhone provided by his employers, which survived the raid. Continue reading...

Democracy is under threat from rising inequality and terrorism. Google and Facebook have taken overBy now, the fact that transatlantic democratic capitalism, once the engine of postwar prosperity, has run into trouble can hardly be denied by anyone with the courage to browse a daily newspaper.Hunger, homelessness, toxic chemicals in the water supply, the lack of affordable housing: all these issues are back on the agenda, even in the most prosperous of countries. This appalling decline in living standards was some time in the making – 40 years of neoliberal policies are finally taking their toll – so it shouldn’t come as a shock. Continue reading...

Measure could lead to fines of up to $50 or 15 days’ imprisonment as state lawmaker warns of the dangers of ‘distracted walking’Jared Schumacher is one of hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans who routinely use electronic devices to text, listen to music or do other tasks as they walk outdoors.If a “distracted walking” measure recently proposed by a state assemblywoman becomes law, the Trenton man and others like him could face fines or even jail time. Continue reading...

Reported sightings of unmanned aircrafts by piloted aircrafts have increased dramatically since 2014, with serious close shaves in Atlanta and MissouriA report of drone sightings from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shows that despite a new registration scheme, near misses between unmanned and piloted aircraft in the US are on the rise. Sightings by pilots and airport officials have steadily increased from less than one a day in 2014 to more than 3.5 between August 2015 and January of this year, many of them from commercial passenger aircraft.Related: Drone scores a first by successfully delivering package in Nevada town Continue reading...

Computer engineer who turned around Intel when he became chief executiveAndy Grove, who has died aged 79, drove Intel to dominate the global market for the microprocessors used in modern computers. Along the way he transformed himself from a techno-geek into a management guru before becoming – after Time magazine made him its Man of the Year in 1997 – a figurehead and mentor for the rest of Silicon Valley. Time called him the “person most responsible for the amazing growth in the power and innovative potential of microchips”.Grove was Intel’s first employee when the company was founded in 1968, and was responsible for getting the firm out of the memory chip business – where it was being beaten by the Japanese – and into microprocessors. But when he eventually became chief executive in 1987, Intel’s annual sales had fallen for four straight years to $1.3bn, it was closing factories, laying off thousands of staff, and running at a loss – “heading for bankruptcy” in the words of Richard Tedlow, Grove’s biographer. Continue reading...

As The Range, NYC beatsmith James Hinton has used YouTube performers with little to no views to voice his new album. He explains why the unknowns are the ones to watchIn the ocean depths of YouTube, far away from the Gangnam Styles and Troye Sivans, there is a lesser-spotted category of video, one whose views rarely reach double digits. The site boasts vast numbers of amateur musicians, uploading raw footage of singing or rapping, more in a surge of emotion rather than any desire to be unearthed by Scooter Braun. These are people who have “laid plain, expressing something human and unique that you wouldn’t get elsewhere,” says NYC electronic musician James Hinton, AKA the Range.Related: Why are YouTube stars so popular? Continue reading...

Millions of children want to be the next Stampy or Diamond Minecart. How to do it is easy enough, but how to do it safely and appropriately is the bigger questionDon’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington. But in 2016, what if the stage is YouTube, and your daughter (or son) is demanding to be put on it, playing Minecraft?That’s the dilemma facing a growing number of parents, whose children aren’t just watching YouTube Minecraft channels like The Diamond Minecart, Stampy and CaptainSparklez – they want to follow in their blocky footsteps. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterFriday! Continue reading...

Industry body BPI has reported more than 200m infringing links to search engine, but says tech firm needs to do more to support rights holdersDays after US music industry body the RIAA criticised YouTube over its music royalties, British equivalent the BPI has fired its latest shots at parent company Google over piracy.The BPI is returning to a familiar line of attack, claiming that Google is not doing enough to remove links to piracy sites from its search engine. Continue reading...

‘Millennial’ chatbot was shut down just 16 hours after she was turned on due to her becoming a genocide-supporting racistMicrosoft is battling to control the public relations damage done by its “millennial” chatbot, which turned into a genocide-supporting Nazi less than 24 hours after it was let loose on the internet.The chatbot, named “Tay” (and, as is often the case, gendered female), was designed to have conversations with Twitter users, and learn how to mimic a human by copying their speech patterns. It was supposed to mimic people aged 18–24 but a brush with the dark side of the net, led by emigrants from the notorious 4chan forum, instead taught her to tweet phrases such as “I fucking hate feminists and they should all die and burn in hell” and “HITLER DID NOTHING WRONG”. Continue reading...

Bernard Hogan-Howe accused of victim blaming after saying cybercrime is made worse by people with poor web securityBritain’s most senior police officer has been accused of attempting to shift blame on to victims of online fraud after he suggested consumers should not be refunded by banks if they fail to protect themselves from cybercrime.

The UK government appears to have altered an official document that linked the vacuum-maker to the development of an electric carThe government appears to have deleted a reference in an official document to plans by the vacuum-maker Dyson to develop an electric car.The Guardian reported on Wednesday that government documents had revealed the British company was working on a battery electric vehicle with help from taxpayers’ money. The government’s National infrastructure delivery plan said the project was expected to create more than 500 jobs and generate £182m of investment. Continue reading...

Patrick doesn’t want to pay BT £5 a month to continue his email service, and would like a free alternativeI have used BT Openworld as my email provider for more than 10 years, and until now I have been paying £1.60 a month as I no longer have a BT landline. However, BT says the fee is soon to increase to £5 a month! Please can you suggest a reliable free alternative email provider? I have tried to set up a Yahoo account, but whenever I try to log in to Yahoo the screen reverts to BT Openworld. PatrickThink of your Yahoo problem as a blessed escape. There are a couple of dozen free or freemium email services, but for most people, it boils down to Google’s Gmail or Microsoft’s Outlook.com. I recommend both, with Gmail as the primary address. Not everybody has the same requirements, but these meet most needs. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matter‘Tis Thursday. Let chat commence. Continue reading...

The company last year refused to confirm they were working on a green vehicle, but a government plan on infrastructure suggests they areDyson is developing an electric car at its headquarters in Wiltshire with help from public money, according to government documents.The company, which makes a range of products that utilise the sort of highly efficient motors needed for an electric car such as vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and bladeless fans, last year refused to rule out rumours it was building one. Continue reading...

Industry body RIAA takes aim at ‘some technology giants’ but Google claims ‘apples to oranges’ comparisons sell its contribution shortYouTube is at loggerheads with music labels – again – after US industry body the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) criticised Google’s video service for the low royalties it pays out to music rightsholders.In its annual report on the US recorded-music market, the RIAA called out the “meagre” royalties paid out by YouTube and other free streaming services. Continue reading...

Driver manages to escape group of men who approached car in dark alley on outskirts of Nairobi

Winning concept has cantilever on Cornish mainland and another on the island fortress, the two stretching out but not quite meetingIt may not be ideal for sufferers of vertigo but it does sound spectacular. A competition to build a new footbridge at Tintagel Castle has been won by a design featuring a gap in the middle.The daring concept proposes one cantilever on the Cornish mainland and another on the island fortress, where, legend has it, King Arthur was conceived. The two structures stretch out to each other across the void but do not quite meet. Continue reading...

The multimillion-selling Lego series returns to its roots with a new Star Wars adventure, bringing the latest movie to life – and adding some new gameplay featuresThis feature contains plot details from the movie Star Wars: The Force AwakensThere was no disturbance in the force, no voices crying out in surprise. Eleven years after the original Lego Star Wars game introduced the winning formula behind this phenomenally successful series of co-op puzzle platformers, no one was shocked when Warner Bros announced Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was as inevitable as another Death Star. Continue reading...

Lumosity, Peak, Elevate, Fit Brains Trainer and Cognito are trying to help Android and iOS users keep their grey cells supple with daily workoutsIf anyone tries to tell you that daily brain training is a digital thing, hit them (gently) with a rolled-up newspaper that then opens to the crosswords page.That said, ever since the fictitious Dr Kawashima got people exercising their grey cells with a Nintendo DS, the brain-training genre has been popular on handheld devices. Smartphones and tablets are no exception. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt is Wednesday. Continue reading...

Investors are pouring money into apps that allow women to track their fertility. Can tech companies use data to change the world of women’s reproductive health?Will Sacks did not plan to go into the menstruation business. When he travelled from Toronto to Reno to attend his first Burning Man festival in August 2009, he only knew that he needed a change. At the age of 29, he was having a personal crisis. “I had forgotten that I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he told me earlier this year. “I had forgotten that I wanted to create a company that could put a dent in the universe.” He quit his job as an energy efficiency consultant, shut down the small online business he had been running on the side, and booked a plane ticket to the desert.Before beginning the drive to Burning Man from Reno airport, Sacks posted a message on Craigslist offering a ride in his rental car to anyone who needed one. A young woman named Kati Bicknell answered. Petite and pale, with thick brown hair, Bicknell looks like she stepped out of a pre‑Raphaelite painting. She exudes an intense, slightly mischievous, energy. Sacks comes across as calmer. He locks eyes when he talks to you, pausing every few sentences to check in: are you still with him? Does his optimism sound naive? Continue reading...

Revealed: After postponing a court hearing with Apple, the FBI is testing a new technique which Apple says they will pressure government to revealA new method to crack open locked iPhones is so promising that US government officials have classified it, the Guardian has learned.The Justice Department made headlines on Monday when it postponed a federal court hearing in California. It had been due to confront Apple over an order that would have forced it to write software that would make it easier for investigators to guess the passcode for an iPhone used by San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook. Continue reading...

Nearly a quarter of UK households now subscribe to Netflix, with more than 1.4m joining in 2015Nearly a quarter of UK households subscribe to Netflix, with 1.4 million joining the streaming service in 2015 alone to watch popular series such as House of Cards, a report has said.More than 5 million households, or 24% of the total, subscribed to Netflix at the end of 2015, compared with 14% in 2014.

Bieber’s Vevo channel generated more than 722m video views in February alone, and he now has more than 20m YouTube subscribersThe biggest YouTube channels are getting bigger, with Justin Bieber currently the biggest beneficiary of the Google-owned service’s growth.Bieber had the most popular YouTube channel in February, with his videos watched 721.6m times that month. Bieber now has more than 20 million subscribers to his channel, and is about to reach 10bn lifetime views. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Tuesday. Continue reading...

Gridlock comes to Indonesian capital with traditional taxi operators claiming ride-hailing apps are leading to income reduction of up to 60%Thousands of taxi drivers have caused traffic chaos in the Indonesian capital in a rowdy protest against competition from ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Grab.TV footage on Tuesday showed long lines of taxis blocking a central expressway, men setting tires alight and jumping on vehicles that refused to join in the protest. An Associated Press reporter witnessed drivers surrounding one taxi, forcing its terrified female passenger out on to the road with her luggage. Continue reading...

Grove’s gamble on microprocessors set the chip maker on course to becoming one of the most profitable and important technology companies of all timeAndy Grove, the former Intel chief executive whose youth under Nazi occupation and escape from the Iron Curtain inspired an “only the paranoid survive” management philosophy that saved the chip maker from financial ruin in the 1980s, has died. He was 79.Intel said Grove died on Monday. It did not specify a cause of death. Continue reading...

Apple chief executive Tim Cook says his company will not ‘shrink’ from the responsibility of protecting customers’ data as the legal battle with the FBI takes a new turn. Cook was speaking at an Apple launch event in Cupertino, California, on Monday. Federal authorities have asked a court to delay a hearing designed to force Apple to compromise its iPhone security systems, saying they may have found another way to unlock the phone

Workers at warehouse in Koblenz, Germany, stage latest walkout as retailer continues its refusal to recognise country’s collective pay deals for the sectorWorkers at an Amazon warehouse in Germany, the company’s second-biggest market behind the US, are starting a new round of strikes in an attempt to pressure the online retailer to increase pay.Related: How do I … avoid using Amazon? Continue reading...

Apple’s latest version of its iPhone and iPad software includes mode for blocking blue light at night and enhancements to the use of iPads in education